The Memory Keeper's Daughter
This book, by Kim Edwards has been a best seller and is on the list of several book clubs. This is where I found it, on the book club shelf at the public library. I had been attracted by the cover for a while, seeing it in a pile at Costco, as well as in bookstores.
So, I finally read it. It is a disturbing book: a woman gives birth to twins, the first, a healthy boy, the second, and unexpected twin, is a girl with downs syndrome. The father, a doctor, who delivered the children, for emotional reasons of his own, decides to tell his wife that the second baby died. Now, he delivers these babies in his office, since getting to the hospital was impossible because of a snowstorm. His nurse, who assisted him, is given the job of taking the baby to a home for retarded children, and is given a very basic birth certificate. So begins the big lie. This lie takes on a being of its own and pretty much controls the plot of the book. The relationship of the doctor and his wife is at its high point at the birth, and slowly begins to go down hill. The only character who seems to survive is the nurse. She takes the baby to the home, and can't leave her there. She decides to keep the baby, leaves town, and starts a new life in another city. She successfully raises the baby to adulthood.
Now the ugly side of the lie begins its life. The wife wants to have a memorial for the baby she never got to see. She never forgets about her, even though her life goes on. Her son grows up to be an angry young man, the doctor's marriage deteriorates. As with lies, the characters have to make up more lies to keep the original one going. The doctor, it seems has been living a life of deception--not sinister deception--just regular deception. Eventually, the reader finds out everything, and the story ends.
Sometimes people tell lies to protect someone--this is what the doctor did when he decided that his wife didn't need the heartache of raising a down syndrome child. So, this was a lie with good intentions. But can a lie ever be one of good intentions? In The Memory Keeper's Daughter, the answer is no.
So, I finally read it. It is a disturbing book: a woman gives birth to twins, the first, a healthy boy, the second, and unexpected twin, is a girl with downs syndrome. The father, a doctor, who delivered the children, for emotional reasons of his own, decides to tell his wife that the second baby died. Now, he delivers these babies in his office, since getting to the hospital was impossible because of a snowstorm. His nurse, who assisted him, is given the job of taking the baby to a home for retarded children, and is given a very basic birth certificate. So begins the big lie. This lie takes on a being of its own and pretty much controls the plot of the book. The relationship of the doctor and his wife is at its high point at the birth, and slowly begins to go down hill. The only character who seems to survive is the nurse. She takes the baby to the home, and can't leave her there. She decides to keep the baby, leaves town, and starts a new life in another city. She successfully raises the baby to adulthood.
Now the ugly side of the lie begins its life. The wife wants to have a memorial for the baby she never got to see. She never forgets about her, even though her life goes on. Her son grows up to be an angry young man, the doctor's marriage deteriorates. As with lies, the characters have to make up more lies to keep the original one going. The doctor, it seems has been living a life of deception--not sinister deception--just regular deception. Eventually, the reader finds out everything, and the story ends.
Sometimes people tell lies to protect someone--this is what the doctor did when he decided that his wife didn't need the heartache of raising a down syndrome child. So, this was a lie with good intentions. But can a lie ever be one of good intentions? In The Memory Keeper's Daughter, the answer is no.
posted by eeroots at 4:54 PM
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